Remember Detroit - And Response

Saturday, July 19, 2014

I agree 100 percent with Roy Exum regarding the Tim Boyd District 8 County Commission race. I do not live in District 8, but if I did, I certainly would vote for Tim over the union-supported Kenny Smith for many reasons, not the least is his major support from out of our area of unions.

Lots of progress in restoring our area to what it can and should be has been accomplished and we do not need to go back to the dark era where unions had a stronghold on our community.

Remember Detroit.

Harold Coker

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Mr. Coker states, "...lots of progress has been accomplished .....we do not need to go back to the dark era when unions had a stronghold on our community." Say what? Yep, anything bad that's ever happened in this town, if you believe the fantasies of Mr. Coker and Mr. Exum, has been the fault of unions.

Never mind that before our recent "progress" Chattanooga was primarily industrial based and never mind that we actually made a conscious decision in the late 70s and early 80s to clean up our air and develop our riverfront and surrounding area, thereby moving toward a more tourist based economy, centered around our beautiful location, the Riverwalk, and the Tennessee Aquarium. All of these things didn't magically occur because we got rid of those evil unions. These things mainly occurred because of the forward thinking of the River City Company and politicians that actually worked together back in those early 80s.

Also, it's easy to completely ignore the fact that Detroit, before its demise, was making substandard automobiles (a corporate decision, not a union decision) and at the same time competing with higher quality and more fuel efficient Japanese automobiles in an era of sharply increasing gas prices. The higher Detroit "union" wages at the time only added about $500 to the total automobile cost, hardly enough to cause the death of Detroit, especially when Big Three management was doing such a great job of that by themselves.

Anyway, when your dog dies or you get in a traffic accident or your lottery ticket doesn't win the Powerball, don't blame the unions like Mr. Coker and Mr. Exum. Also, just for a second, consider that the demise and demonization of unions has coincided with the shrinking of the middle class. That's no coincidence, either.

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